Destruction in Gaza is beyond belief – Ceasefire Day 4

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Destruction in Gaza is beyond belief – Ceasefire Day 4
An artist, who returned home after the ceasefire, paints a mural to express the determination of Palestinians to rebuild Gaza, on January 20, 2025, in southern Rafah city (Mahmoud Bassam/Anadolu)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

OCHA, the UN’s humanitarian agency, says 808 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

Gaza’s civil defense agency and medical staff have recovered about 200 bodies since the ceasefire came into effect on Sunday.

Israeli forces reportedly opened fire on Palestinians in Rafah in southern Gaza, killing at least one person and injuring others.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beita Lahia in northern Gaza
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beita Lahia in northern Gaza (social media)

Rights groups says Israel preventing Dr Hussam Abu Safia from meeting with lawyers

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights says Israeli authorities have extended a ban preventing Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, from meeting with his lawyers until February 6.

“We strongly condemn this unlawful decision and urgently demand immediate access for Al Mezan’s lawyer to assess his condition,” Al Mezan said in a statement shared on X.

Israeli soldiers detained Abu Safia on December 29 after violently attacking his hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians confront a landscape of destruction in Gaza’s ‘ghost towns’

Palestinians in Gaza are confronting an apocalyptic landscape of devastation after a ceasefire paused more than 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Across the tiny coastal enclave, where built-up refugee camps are interspersed between cities, drone footage captured by The Associated Press shows mounds of rubble stretching as far as the eye can see — remnants of the longest and deadliest war between Israel and Hamas in their blood-ridden history.

“As you can see, it became a ghost town,” said Hussein Barakat, 38, whose home in the southern city of Rafah was flattened. “There is nothing,” he said, as he sat drinking coffee on a brown armchair perched on the rubble of his three-story home, in a surreal scene.

Critics say Israel has waged a campaign of scorched earth to destroy the fabric of life in Gaza, accusations that are being considered in two global courts, including the crime of genocide. Israel denies those charges and says its military has been fighting a complex battle in dense urban areas and that it tries to avoid causing undue harm to civilians and their infrastructure.

Education Ministry says 95 percent of schools in Gaza damaged

The Education Ministry in Gaza says the world allowed Israel to “kill, destroy and burn” and commit atrocities not seen since World War II for 15 months, leaving “disastrous effects” on the enclave.

The ministry said about 15,000 school-aged children and 800 people who worked in the education sector were killed in the war.

According to the ministry, relentless Israeli bombardment also damaged 95 percent of educational institutions in Gaza and put 85 percent of them out of commission.

The ministry said in a statement that the war deprived students of large parts of two consecutive school years as efforts to implement remote learning and makeshift schools were disrupted by the lack of access to safe areas, electricity and the internet.

It added that the ministry has a plan in place to complete the 2023/2024 school year and to start the 2024/2025 period.

Israel destroyed all police stations, hundreds of vehicles in Gaza: Police department

All police offices and stations in the Gaza Strip have been burned and hundreds of vehicles and other assets destroyed in Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023, according to the General Directorate of the Palestinian Police in the Gaza Strip.

More than 1,400 members of the department have also been killed, including the director-general, Major-General Mahmoud Salah, said the statement published on Facebook.

More than 1,950 members have been injured and 211 arrested by Israeli forces during the war, it added.

Israel to Let 50 Wounded Hamas Militants Cross for Treatment in Egypt Daily

Israel will permit the daily exit of about 50 wounded Hamas members from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment in Egypt as part of the hostage release deal, Haaretz has learned.

The Israeli government has approved that, from the 14th day of the cease-fire until the completion of the deal’s first stage on the 42nd day, wounded Hamas members will be allowed to travel to Egypt for medical treatment, accompanied by up to three people.

The people accompanying the Hamas members do not have to be family members, and the group could exploit the approval granted by Israel to move thousands of its members to Egypt.

According to the agreement, Israel will allow 200 Palestinians to travel to Egypt daily for the first 28 days, totaling about 5,500 Palestinians over the first stage of the cease-fire deal (continue reading here).

NOTE: UN agencies say some 12,000 patients in Gaza are currently in need of urgent medical evacuation abroad. Since the closure of the Rafah crossing, only 436 patients, including 257 children, have been evacuated outside Gaza.

West Bank: In echoes of Gaza, Israeli forces surround Palestinian hospital and refugee camp

Israeli forces have besieged a Palestinian government hospital in Jenin and a nearby refugee camp in the heart of the city, as the Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, said the assault marked “a shift in … security strategy” in the West Bank.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday they had carried out airstrikes in Jenin as well as detonating roadside explosive devices. The Palestinian health ministry said at least 10 people had been killed in Jenin, and more than 40 wounded.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its ambulances had been prevented from reaching many of the dead and wounded who lay in the streets of neighborhoods around the Jenin refugee camp.

With the ceasefire in Gaza coming into effect less than a week ago, Israeli forces indicated the start of a renewed military operation across the West Bank.

Wissam Bakr, the head of Khalil Suleiman governmental hospital in Jenin, said: “The current situation is awful. Israeli forces destroyed the roads in front of the hospital. They put the rubble from the destroyed streets in front of hospital exits to prevent ambulances from entering or leaving.”

 

He estimated that 600 medical staff and patients were sheltering inside the hospital, fearfully crammed on any beds, chairs or spaces they could find. Supplies of food and water in the hospital would only last a few days. An Israeli drone had been audible, he said, terrifying the people huddled in the hospital.

Two nurses and three doctors had been shot on the main road leading to the hospital on Tuesday, he added. The sound of gunfire was intermittently audible over the phone as he spoke (continue reading here).

Israel’s Jenin assault may be Trump’s trade-off for ceasefire in Gaza

Ever since the Gaza ceasefire was announced on January 15, Israeli state violence has quickly escalated across the West Bank in what local monitors and analysts describe as an apparent attempt to formally annex more land.

Israel began erecting dozens of new checkpoints in the West Bank, Israeli settlers then began expanding illegal outposts in the West Bank and attacking Palestinian villages, and the Israeli army announced plans to carry out major operations in the West Bank. It began on January 21 with a major incursion into Jenin camp, ostensibly to root out armed groups.

The uptick in violence has led some to believe that new United States President Donald Trump made a trade-off with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pause the war on Gaza in exchange for stepping up aggression in the West Bank.

“The ceasefire in Gaza – which looks more like a humanitarian pause and “trade of hostages and prisoners” – comes with a price. Israel never ever relinquishes anything without a price to be paid and I think we are seeing that in the West Bank, given the sort of [officials] the Trump administration is composed of,” said Tahani Mustafa, an expert on Israel-Palestine with International Crisis Group (continue reading here).

Israeli military vehicles stopped on a road in front of ambulances responded to calls for help from those shot by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp, on Tuesday, Jan. 21 in the occupied West Bank
Israeli military vehicles stopped on a road in front of ambulances responded to calls for help from those shot by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp, on Tuesday, Jan. 21 in the occupied West Bank (Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu)

UN expert warns Israel’s genocide could spread to West Bank

The UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, has warned of the potential consequences of Israel’s escalating violence in the occupied West Bank going unchecked.

“As the long awaited ceasefire in Gaza took place, Israel’s death machinery escalated its firing in the West Bank, killing 10 people in Jenin [on Tuesday],” Albanese said in a post on X.

“If it is not forced to stop, Israel’s genocide of Palestinians will not be confined to Gaza. Mark my words,” she said.

Qutaiba Walid Ahmad Shalabi and Mohammad Asad Mahmoud Nazzal, killed by Israel Wednesday, Jan. 22
Qutaiba Walid Ahmad Shalabi and Mohammad Asad Mahmoud Nazzal, killed by Israel Wednesday, Jan. 22 (IMEMC)

Occupation Forces Execute Two Palestinians, Bomb a Home, Near Jenin

Israeli forces executed two Palestinian young men, on Wednesday evening, after bombing a citizen’s home in the town of Burqin, west of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.

On Thursday morning, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the deaths of the two young men, Qutaiba Walid Ahmad Shalabi, 30, and Mohammad Asad Mahmoud Nazzal, 25, adding that the army confiscated the bodies of the slain young men.

Media sources said that an undercover Israeli force infiltrated the town and besieged a citizen’s home in Burqin town, followed by military reinforcements, including heavy machinery.

Hassan Sobh, the town’s Mayor, told the WAFA News Agency that the Israeli army used women and children as human shields, demanding they evacuate the building over loudspeaker.

The army then opened heavy fire at the home, fired “Energa” anti-tank grenades at it, and carried out several drone strikes, executing the two young men, and detaining their bodies.

Trump Halts Sanctions on Israeli Settlers, Threatens to Seize Assets of War Crimes Investigators

In his inauguration speech on Monday, President Donald Trump said he wanted to be known as “a peacemaker and a unifier” in his second term, before applauding his own efforts of securing a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, as well as the return of three Israeli hostages from Gaza.

But later that day, amid a rush of executive orders, Trump seemed to betray his own vision of peace. He lifted Biden-era sanctions aimed at curbing Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. He also rescinded a policy that had blocked sanctions against the International Criminal Court, putting those who try to hold the U.S. and its allies accountable for war crimes at risk of a new round of financial penalties.

Within hours of lifting the sanctions, Israeli settlers attacked Jinasfut, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, injuring at least 21 Palestinians and setting fire to homes, cars, a nursery, and workshop, according to village officials. Despite the ceasefire, the Israeli military had been raiding homes and mosques, detaining dozens of Palestinians across the occupied territory, including children and journalists (continue reading here).

RELATED:
Israeli forces intervene in the protest held by Palestinians against illegal Israeli settlers who set up encampments at Umm Safa village, north of Ramallah, West Bank on September 14, 2024. [ Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli forces intervene in the protest held by Palestinians against illegal Israeli settlers who set up encampments at Umm Safa village, north of Ramallah, West Bank on September 14, 2024. ( Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency)

Trump envoy says he’ll be part of Gaza ceasefire inspections

US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy says he’ll travel to the region to be part of what he described as “an inspection team” deployed in and along the Gaza Strip to ensure ceasefire compliance.

In an interview with Fox News, envoy Steve Witkoff also said he believed all countries in the Middle East will get “on board” to normalize ties with Israel.

Asked to identify specific countries, he singled out Qatar, saying the Gulf country is a critical player in reaching the Gaza truce deal.

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Anadolu Agency: Netanyahu asks Trump to extend Israeli troop withdrawal deadline in southern Lebanon: Media

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STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – JANUARY 22, 2025 (ongoing count):

At least 48,155 Palestinians killed, 118,472 injured – including:

  • at least 47,283 killed in Gaza (~20,600 children)
  • at least 872 killed in the West Bank (~177 children)
  • at least 111,472 injured in Gaza
  • at least 7,000 injured in the West Bank

WAR STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 (Hamas attack) – JANUARY 19, 2025 (Ceasefire):

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: at least 47,772 – including at least 46,913 in Gaza (~20,600 children), and 860 in the West Bank (~177 children). Palestinian injuries: at least 117,725 – including at least 110,750 in Gaza, and 7,000 in the West Bank.

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: ~1,616 (or 1,590) – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 436 (or 405) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

 

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